Classic Bike Guide - Real rides, real riders

Singularly simple

If you’re of an age to remember the wonderful Saturday afternoon BBC Grandstand and ITV World of Sport televised scrambles series, then you’ll recall names such as Smith, Bickers, Banks, Eastwood, Goss, Rickman, Wade and many others. You’ll also recall that they were mostly on British machines, Greeves, Metisse, Matchless and of course, BSA.

In the early 60s, as Jeff Smith headed toward his brace of World Championships, the BSA unit construction engine was continually improved to withstand the rigours of international scrambling and these improvements eventually filtered down to the road models. It has quite a remarkable family tree, spawned originally from the pathetic little Triumph Terrier, the engine grew to 200cc, then in BSA guise 250cc, 350cc, 441cc and finally 500cc – and if you count in its grandchild CCM, even up to 620cc.

It’s funny how times and fancies change. By the time the unit single had arguably reached its peak of reliability and power, single cylinder motorcycles were out of vogue and BSA was in terminal decline. People wanted four-cylinder roadsters and two-stroke off-roaders and the street scrambler styling was still years ahead of its time. As such it died with the mother-company. Well, that’s not strictly true because Alan Clews took it upon himself to continue development and competition and thrilled patriotic race fans for several more years as the thundering CCM continued, against all the odds, to hold its own in what had then become motocross.

These days of course, it’s a different story, the competition based BSA singles – and even more so the early BSA based CCMs – are commanding a terrific premium, both for use in classic scrambles and for the collectors too.

The North American market was all important to the British motorcycle factories and BSA enjoyed a healthy export experience, the Americans having the benefit of square miles of wide open spaces whereon the off-roader and the dual purpose motorcycle could be used to its full extent. As such, a goodly number of BSA unit singles were shipped out and it was one such machine, which ended up in the care of Kent based joiner Tony Hayward.

Tony has long been a fan of BSA and Triumph triples, indeed his genuine Hurricane was awarded best in show by Craig Vetter, at the 2008 Beezumph Rally. This now takes pride of place in his morning room. There are other delightful triples in his workshop too, including another Hurricane, a grey framed export five-speed Rocket Three, a late export Rocket Three and a Rob North version.

Les Whiston, proprietor of Trident Engineering has been known to repatriate triples from the USA and it was in one of his containers that the subject B50 returned to its home shores. Tony explains, “Les sold it on an internet auction site and I missed it, but when I called him a few weeks later, the transaction had fallen through and he still had it, so I bought it. It was a bit rough, having not been run for several years and before that it had been a field bike.

The bike had begun life as a 1971 B50T, though had seen plenty of changes over the years. The attraction of the off-road style was plain to see when Tony explained about his formative years. “Dad worked on the docks but as they closed we ended up in Tilbury about 1970, there was a quarry nearby and there were loads of us kids who used to ride bikes there. I had a Bantam, but my first road bike was a Garelli Tiger Cross in 1976. Then I bought a DT125 Yamaha and passed my test. I loved Greeves and Bultacos, that kind of bike but there was something about the triples too.”

Having served his apprenticeship and then set up on his own, the next few years were spent building up his business until in 1990 he went to Carl Rosner’s for a T160, and spotted a Hurricane. It was love at first sight and in 1994 he bought one in a private sale, later selling it on to a pal. He bought another one, from Redditch – that’s the one in the workshop – which is a genuine 1973 UK model, one of just 34 sold in this country.

“I was at a Triumph car dealers, looking for some TR6 spares, when in conversation he mentioned he had a Triumph Hurricane.

I said ‘No, you’ll not have one of them’ but he showed it to me and indeed it was, so I finished up buying it off him,” says Tony. The posh one in the morning room was purchased through the CBG classifieds in 1998.

Returning to the B50, though the engine took little effort to get going, it ran well and was mechanically quiet, Tony removed it en masse and entrusted it for a once over inspection to Hampshire based B50 specialist Chris Burrell. All things considered it wasn’t in bad condition internally, though for safety reasons he fitted a new big end and a bulletproof Carillo con rod and new bearings, as well as treating the bore to a +20 rebore and new piston.

The gearbox was found to have the wide ratio off-road cluster, again in good condition, and he fitted a set of new genuine old stock BSA clutch plates.

The beauty of many American imports is that despite their age and storage conditions, if they've been in a warm, dry climate then they may be tarnished but will not have been ravaged by rust. The B50 was no exception, with several components, such as the ‘Super Akront’ handlebars, needing no more than a good polish.

The fork sliders were polished and the scruffy stanchions replaced, along with
the necessary seals and bushes etc. The alloy fork yokes were also polished. The original wheel rims were chrome plated steel and while they would have come
up OK, Tony chose to replace them with alloy equivalents. “I took advantage of Central Wheel Components’ one day service. With the hubs polished, I arranged to visit them and they fitted a 21-incher to the front, which makes tyre choice a lot easier than the standard 20-inch, and an 18-inch to the back, with stainless steel spokes,” he says. Tyres of choice are Pirelli 4.00 x 18 rear and 2.75 x 21 front.

The scruffy plastic mudguards with which it came were dumped in favour of a set of universal alloy blades, from Sammy Miller, likewise the rear lamp.

Tony altered the gearing slightly, going up a couple of teeth at the front (from 15 to 17), and replaced the rear sprocket with a Talon light alloy version, albeit with the same 52 teeth. The new rear shock absorbers are Falcon.

The B50 had the remains of the US specification ‘zip kit’ – the Dick Mann Dirt Bike Kit – which included the capacitor ignition system which negated the battery, 2½ gallon alloy tank and the short seat. The seat was expertly recovered by RK Leighton, a neat addition being the white piping. The tank had suffered a few dents, but this was repaired by CW Classics – and I challenge anyone to spot even the slightest imperfection on the finished article. Colin, at CW Classics was also responsible for straightening the chainguard, which was also somewhat worse for wear. The man is obviously a wizard with sheet metal.

The exhaust pipe needed no more than a polish, though as we spoke with Tony on the day, the postman brought a parcel containing a replacement, from Armours. The silencing is taken care of by a Supertrapp race silencer. Competition riders will be familiar with these little units which have a series of removable circular baffles in the end to tune the system (and the noise emitted accordingly) without causing disturbance to gas flow and carburation etc. While it gives forth a healthy bark, personally I’d have one or two more out to emphasise that British single sound.

Surrey Cycles supplied a 932 Concentric Amal, as per the B50MX, to replace the worn 930 original, and also the new handlebar levers.

The lovely paintjob was undertaken by Nick, at FD Cycles, Ongar, and while Tony reckons he probably made a mistake with the almost lime green flash across the tank, the general consensus is that it looks dead right.

Big singles seem to have developed a misguided reputation for being cantankerous in the starting department and as Tony says, “People say, ‘oh if it kicks back it’ll break your leg or have you over the handlebars’ but it’s nonsense. OK, if you get it all wrong and it whacks you under your foot when you’ve only got trainers on then yes, it’ll hurt, but this bike’s a doddle to start once you know its idiosyncrasies.”

It’s always a personal challenge for me to be able to start any bike on the kickstart and being used to a Clubman Gold Star, the B50 didn’t faze me. “Just make sure you keep the throttle shut,” said Tony as I switched on the fuel tap and lightly tickled the carburettor. Of course, on kicking I opened the throttle and nothing happened. Kick two, with a closed throttle, was rewarded with a satisfying, thumping tickover. As the engine warmed, the tickover speeded up and I wound out the slide screw until it sounded more like a stationary engine at a steam fair. Pretty good considering this has a 10:1 compression ratio and a scrambles cam. Tony runs it on stock pump unleaded with Miller’s octane booster.

It took little more than a cursory look over the B50 to see that it was absolutely spot-on and my expectations once across it were not disappointed, much to the relief of Tony.

At just 240lb and about as wide as a moped, the B50 was a complete delight to ride. Everything about it worked perfectly, the clutch was light, the gear change crisp and quick, the brakes good and the handling, certainly within the limitations of my reasonably reserved ride out, faultless.

As a lover of single cylinder bikes, I was in my element. As Tony headed off with photographer Baumber, around the lovely twists and turns of the Kent countryside to our chosen static photograph setting, I deliberately kept dropping back just so I could accelerate and catch them up again, enjoying myself immensely as I semi-scratched around.

I can now fully understand how, after nearly three decades of the universally dull across the frame four cylinder motorcycle, why such classic singles are now so sought after. It’s a combination of the sound, the light weight, the ease of riding and the experience of fantastic fun without fear of licence abuse.

The fun factor beneath three figure speeds has to be experienced to be believed on a bike like this. What’s more the B50 is not slouch, even on the low gearing, and any self respecting loony would have no bother riding around on the back wheel if he was so minded. Of course, another plus point is that such a bike can be taken off-road, certainly for a spot of green laning or even worse, though I doubt very much that’s on Tony’s agenda. There’s also that transfer on the tank too, a guaranteed crowd puller and nowadays a symbol of ‘cool’. Shame people didn’t think like that at the time.

During the day, I was also privileged to ride Tony’s Rob North Rocket Three, which was equally superb, but if it had come to choice of which I could take home, of all the bikes in his workshop, it’d have to be the B50. It really was that good. Simple but highly effective.

There’s more to come too, for hiding away in the corner of the workshop is a genuine Triumph TR5MX Avenger awaiting the treatment. Introduced in 1974 it’s a B50MX badged up as a Triumph and sporting a ridiculous twin silencer. Watch this space.

Photographs: peter baumber

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